Seattle Historical Sites

Summary for 505 13th AVE / Parcel ID 7948300205 / Inv # CA002

Historic Name: Squire Apartments Common Name: Mohawk Apartments Style: Tudor Neighborhood: Central Area Built By: Huntington and Gould Year Built: 1909   Significance This distinctive commercial/apartment building was the first built project designed by Carl Gould, who became one the city's most prominent and influential architects. Gould, a New Yorker, had been educated at L'Ecole De Beaux-Arts in Paris and interned with McKim Mead and White in New York. Following projects in San Francisco and Wisconsin, he arrived in Seattle in 1908 and began working in association with Daniel Huntington. This building was designed in 1909 for Watson C. Squire, president of the Union Trust Company, who platted this area; the neighborhood is still known as Squire Park. According to Booth and Wilson's biography of Gould, this design reflects much of Gould's life up to that time. The bay windows are a common element of apartment buildings in San Francisco where Gould had worked on a plan with Daniel Burnham. The projecting gables and the parapet with stylized battlements are found in an award-winning design of an alpine hostel that he had produced at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. For many years, from at least the 1930s to the 1970s, the building was known as the Mohawk Apartments. The main tenant for more than forty years was the Palace Café, under a variety of similar names and owners. Historically, many of the apartment tenants have been Asian. It currently houses a popular Ethiopian restaurant, reflecting the changing ethnic character of the neighbor at the edge of the Central District.   Appearance This three-story building has two floors of apartment above several storefronts. Clinker brick cladding covers the first and second floors, with stucco on the third. Five suspended two-story semihexagonal bays are found at each corner and in the middle of the east elevation. Each bay is capped with a gabled roof, with half-timbering detailing on the gable ends and spandrels of the bays. The distinctive roofline is a tall crenellated brick parapet, below which is a bracketed cornice. Windows are newer aluminum sash. The storefronts have been altered, with covered display windows and transoms and newer doors; it is difficult to determine what original fabric remains. One storefront on the east elevation retains its recessed doorway and wood bulkhead.

Detail for 505 13th AVE / Parcel ID 7948300205 / Inv # CA002

Status: Yes - Inventory Classication: Building District Status: INV Cladding(s): Brick, Stucco Foundation(s): Concrete - Poured Roof Type(s): Flat with Parapet Roof Material(s): Unknown Building Type: Domestic - Multiple Family Plan: Rectangular Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: three Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture Integrity Changes to Plan: Intact Changes to Windows: Extensive Changes to Original Cladding: Slight Major Bibliographic References Booth, T. William and William H. Wilson. Carl F. Gould: A Life in Architecture and Arts. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995. King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives. Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996. Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. Shaping Seattle Architecture, A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.

Photo collection for 505 13th AVE / Parcel ID 7948300205 / Inv # CA002

Photo taken Aug 16, 2002